Manipulating flat articles



May 1, 1962 Filed Dec. 19, 1960 w 9 LL W. REIST MANIPULATING FLAT ARTICLES 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 1, 1962- wQ REIST 3,032,341

MANIPULATING FLAT ARTICLES Filed Dec. 19, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 1, 1962 w. REIST 3,032,341

MANIPULATING FLAT ARTICLES Filed Dec. 19, 1960 s Sheets-Sheet 3 The present invention relates to the manipulation of continuously delivered fiat articles, particularly to the manipulation of papers delivered by a rotary printing press.

For the sake of simplicity and purely by way of example, the method and apparatus of the invention will be explained in connection with a rotary printing press.

Papers are delivered from a rotary press, usually in imbricated or overlapping arrangement and are transferred by a conveyor device while undergoing additional operating steps, to a delivery station. At this station the papers are in stacked relation, having been upset from the imbricated arrangement as the papers were advanced in the conveyor device. The articles are combined at the delivery station to form packages, in which form they reach their final destination.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of handling the continuously delivered articles, by individually engaging each article and separately manipulating the articles in subsequent operating steps.

A further object of the invention is the provision of an apparatus in combination with a rotary printing press, for carrying out the aforesaid method. According to the invention this apparatus comprises gripping members movable along a closed path and responsive to control means, said gripping members being operative to individually engage the continuously delivered articles, and in particular printed papers in imbricated arrangement, and to withdraw the delivered articles by their leading edge.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating, by way of example several embodiments of the invention, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in elevation of a manipulating apparatus adapted 'for being combined with a rotary printing press.

FIGURE 2 shows top plan view of a detail of FIG. 1.

FIGURES 3 and 4 are part sectional elevations of a gripping member in closed condition viewed in a direction transversely to the travelling direction and in the travelling direction of said gripping member, respectively.

FIGURE 5 shows a control means for the grippers, viewed from the side,

FIGURE 6 is a modification of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIGURE 7 shows a modified transferring device, and

FIGURE 8 is a section on the line VIIIVIII of FIG- URE 7.

FIGURES 1 and 2 show the delivery end of a conveying device. The other end of the device is connected to a rotary printing press (not shown) to receive papers delivered by the press. The conveyer comprises two groups of upper and lower conveyer belts consisting of four belts 2' and 2", respectively. The belts pass over pulleys 4 mounted on oppositely rotating shafts 4' and 4". The printed papers 3 are delivered by the press in imbricated or overlapping arrangement, for example newspapers in double folded form, and are entrained between the four belts 2 and 2". In order to impart to the papers 3 a greater stiiiness, the shaft 4' carries an empty pulley 5 situated substantially midway of two pairs of conveying belts. The pulley 5 is of such diameter that the newspapers, when ejected, are deformed to the shape tit 3,032,341 Fatented May 1, 1962 of a shallow channel. The stillness gained in this manner permits dispensing the paper from between the pulleys 4 in floating unsupported condition.

Spaced from the end of the conveyor 1 extends a vertical section 61 of a continuous endless guide rail 6 which further includes inclined section 62, a substantially horizontal section 63, a further vertical section 64 and a second sloping section 65.

As seen in FIGURE 4, the cross-section of the guide rail 6 is of C shape. A plurality of gripping units 7 project from the rail 6 and are movably guided by the rail. Each gripping unit comprises a pair of supporting members 8 passing through the slot of the C-shaped rail. Each pair of members 8 carries two pairs of rolls 9 engaging the rail from within, and a transverse roll 10 serving as lateral guide by engaging the rail at its edges adjacent the slot. Morever, each pair of members 8 carries clamping tongs 11 extending in the plane of the rail and formed by a fixed clamping jaw 11 and a movable clamping jaw 11'. The latter clamping jaw 11 carries two pivoting arms l3 which are rigidly secured thereon and which extend each on one side of a supporting plate 8. The arms 13 are pivotally mounted on a journal pin 14 mounted in the plates 8. The jaw 11 is retained in a closed position with fixed clamping jaw 11 by spring 12. An abutting roller 15 is mounted for rotation on the free end of each pivoting arm 13. When the gripping members 7 move along the rail 62 in the operative direction designated by U, the rollers 15 travel upon a cam track 16 starting at the section 63 of the rail 6. As seen in FIGURE 5, the pivoting arms 13, together with the movable clamping jaw 11', are pivotally moved by the track 16 against the action of the spring 12, whereby the tongs will be opened. The tracks 16 extend on both sides of the slot of the rail 6 along sections 63, 64, 65 and 61,

of the rail and gradually taper off towards the lower end of the vertical section 61.

Within the right hand portion of the loop formed by the rail 6 in PEG. 1, there is arranged a conveyer chain 18 adapted for being driven by a motor (not shown) over rollers 17. The chain 18 engages the gripping members 7 as they arrive at the horizontal section 63 of the rail 6, in order to drive these members upwardly along the vertical section 64 to the beginning of the downwardly inclined section 65. From here the gripping members under the influence of gravity pass to the end of a stacked column of grippers 7, which are held in position by a bolt 19 engaging rail 6 at the end of the vertical rail section 61. The relative position between conveyor 1 and rail 6 is such that a newspaper 3, freely ejected from the conveyer 1, directly passes into the opened mouth of the gripping member 7 held by the bolt 19. An endless band 20 moving in the direction of the arrow P serves as an abutment and guide for the leading edge of the newspapers 3, mainly in order to compensate for variations in the thickness of said papers. The bolt 19 is secured to the armature of an electromagnet 21 which is controlled by a photoelectric device 22' 2" such that during interruption of the light beam 23 the bolt 19 is displaced to release a gripping member 7. The photoelectric device 22'--22 is arranged so that the leading edge of the newspapers 3 which penetrate directly into the opened tongs of the lowermost gripper 7, interrupts the light beam. The resulting short control impulse causes the sudden release of the gripper which falls down along the rail with rapid acceleration owing to the action of gravity and of the weight of the gripper column supported by it. The tension clamping springs 12 of all those gripping members 7, the supporting rollers 15 of which have already entered the wedgeshaped terminal zone of the cam track 16, exert at the same time an accelerating influence and a final acceleration impulse is imparted to the released gripping member by its own supporting rollers, moving down the steeper inclined end portion of the webs 16. During this operation the closing clamping tongs 11 of the accelerated gripping member, as shown at 24, engage the newspaper 3 which subsequently is withdrawn or completely ejected from the conveyor 1.

After the short control impulse the bolt 19 again penetrates into the rail 6 under spring action, and the next following gripping member is immediately engaged by the bolt and is retained until the light beam 23 is again interrupted by the next following newspaper. At full operating speed of the rotary press the newspapers follow each other closely and the output amounts to more than a dozen copies per second. It is evident that in this case the stacked-up column of gripping members runs off practically in continuous sequence, the bolt 19 essentially fulfilling the task of synchronizing the gripper discharge in accordance with the speed of delivery of thepapers by the conveyer 1 or by the printing press. In this arrangement the bolt and thus the gripping members are actuated by the newspapers, successively moved into the light beam which is dependent upon the speed of delivery by the rotary printing press.

The gripping members 7 travel along the sloping section 62 to the discharging section 63, where they are engaged by the conveyer chain 18, and their supporting rollers are advanced on the cam tracks 16. The clamping tongs 11 are opened by a tilting movement of the arms 13 and the newspaper is released and thereafter deposited in upright position in a conveyer 26 formed of lateral and bottom conveying belts 25.

The newspapers delivered in imbricated arrangement from the printing press thus have been individually engaged and after separate manipulation finally arranged in packet form. It will be understood that the newspapers individually clamped in gripping members, prior to final disposal may also pass through a number of additional operating zones for example trimming zones.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a plurality of slower operations may be performed on the papers subsequent to their delivery from the rotary press. For this purpose the modification according to FIGURE 6 is particularly suitable, in which the rail 6 is divided into two branches 6' and 6 following vertical section 61. Each of these branches may be further subdivided namely until the speed of the delivery of articles to the individual branches conforms to that at which the operations are to be carried out. The articles moving along the individual branches may be separately discharged therefrom, or the branches can subsequently unite again. In the example according to FIGURE 6 the branches 6' and 6" are twisted through 90 about their axes so that the slots of the C-shaped rails 6 and 6 face each other. The gripping members travelling along the individual branches are rotated 90, whereby the newspapers are moved into the space between the two rail branches. The movement of the grippers along the rail branches can be so controlled that the newspapers alternately move along one or the other branch and engage into one another in comb-shaped manner. When the clamping tongs 11 of the grippers 7 are opened in the manner already described, and the papers discharged into packets, an advantage is obtained in that the folded edges of the newspapers in the packages become alternately positioned whereby straight stacks can be formed. The clamping edges of the clamping jaws advantageously are angularly formed, in order to impart to the newspapers a channel shape and thus impart the necessary stiffness thereto which is required during the operation and particularly during the swinging movement mentioned with respect to FIG. 6.

The separate handling :of the newspapers permits, prior to the final discharge the performance of operating steps which previously had to be carried out by hand. As an example, a case is considered where supplementary sheets, for example advertisements are to be inserted into newspapers. This operation, when carried out by hand, is very cumbersome and slow, but can now be effected by means of a device similar to the construction according to FIGURE 6 in which one branch of each pair of rails would carry the newspapers, while the other branch would carry the inserts. With a corresponding form of the clamping tongs and with other suitable provisions the folded newspapers would slightly open when pivoting inwards, whereby the simultaneously pivoted inserts may be passed between the folded sheets to be inserted therein.

Owing to the separate handling of the papers by the described apparatus, the packages may finally be discharged without necessitating operating stoppages, so that in addition to the insertion operation, as well as an addressing operation could take place on an assembly line. In pointing out this possibility, the herein explained method and apparatus are particularly susceptible of modifications, without violating the scope of the invenvention. For example, by applying a frictional drive for the additional acceleration of the gripping members, the output of the apparatus could be increased still more.

In FIGURES 7 and 8 like or corresponding parts, as far as not diiferently stated, are designated by reference numbers already used for such parts. In this construction the guide rail 6 is separated into lower and upper channel portions 66 and 68 by webs 67. Similar to the example first described, the gripping member 7 is guided in the guide rail 6 by means of the rolls 9' and a transverse wheel 10. The pivoting arms 13' are also in this embodiment connected to the clamping jaw 11" to effect the opening of the gripper tongs which are formed so that the rollers 15, as indicated, may be of wide gauge or of narrow gauge. The reason for this formation is to permit the actuation of the gripping members by means of wide gauge control cams or by narrow-gauge control cams. This provides the possibility of having two types of gripping members travelling along the same guide rail, whereby control cams provided at one place only actuate one of the gripper types, and, at another place control cams only actuate the other gripper type. It thus will be possible to subdivide the delivered articles and to discharge them to different operating stations along the guide rail structure.

Underneath the chassis 8' of each gripper 7 is a clamping shoe 27 which is pivotally mounted at one end on the chassis by means of a pivot pin '28 and which extends forwardly from pin 28 in the direction of rotation. Under the action of a compression spring 29 (FIGURE 7) hearing on the chassis and acting on the shoe 27 at the other end thereof, the guide shoes 27 are urged into the lower guide channel 66 of rail 6, where they rest upon the rollers 3% of a conveyer chain 31, running within this channel. This conveyer comprises an endless link chain, in which each roller 30 advantageously is provided with a rubberized running surface and supported on both sides of the link axes. To provide an improved guiding action for the chain, rollers 32 and also lateral guide rollers 33 are additionally provided on some link axes. Contrary to the construction according to FIGURE 1 the conveyer chain 31 moves along the entire endless rail 6. Moreover, the rear end of the chassis 8 of each gripping member carries a wedge 34 which extends rearwardly from the chassis and, when the next following gripping member arrives against the preceding gripper the latter engages into a recess 36 of the guide shoe 27. Then a cross-pin 35 of the next following gripping member, which pin extends through the said excess, climbs up the wedge 34, so that the guide shoe, as shown in FIGURE 8, is raised against the action of spring 29 to release the gripper member from connection with the conveyer chain.

Fundamentally, the mode of operation of this modification corresponds to that of FIGURES l to 5, differing essentially only in that the conveyer chain runs along substantially the entire rail, so that the gripping members are driven at least into proximity of the locking bolt 19 (FIG. 1). The vertical rail section 61 and the locking device is also present in the described embodiment. Movement of the gripping members is effected by means of the clamping shoes which under the action of the compression spring 29 abut against the conveying rollers 39 travel ling in the channel 66 of the rail '6. It will be understood, that the rollers in this case function as an actual transmission gearing, whereby the gripping members move at twice the travelling speed of the conveyer chain and gradually overtake the chain. After the first gripper has been retained by the locking bolt, all following gripping members run up the wedge 34 of the preceding gripper, whereby the clamping shoes are lifted. The coupling engagement between the stationary grippers and the conveyer chain is thereby released, so that slip, excessive wear and driving losses do not occur. Furthermore it is possible to positively control the gripping movement of the grippers throughout substantially the whole path of the rail 6.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for manipulating flat articles delivered in imbricated arrangement comprising means forming an endless travelling path, a series of gripping members adapted to travel along said path and engage said articles as they approach said gripping members for moving said article along at least a portion of said path, and control means operatively positioned relative to said path for engaging and operating said gripping members, said control means including impulse emitting means actuated by the articles approaching the gripping members to operate said gripping members.

2. Apparatus for manipulating flat articles delivered in imbricated position by a production machine, comprising means forming an endless travelling path, a series of gripping members adapted to travel along said path, conveyer means for carrying said articles in imbricated position towards said gripping members, control means for operating said gripping members, said control means including impulse emitting means actuated by the leading edge of said articles approaching the gripping members, and locking means for stopping one of said travelling gripping members with the latter adjacent the articles in the conveyor means and in an operative zone to grip and advance an article, said impulse emitting means being operative to release said locking means with an article operatively positioned relative to said one gripping member whereby said one gripping member is freed for movement in said path and with an article gripped thereby.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, comprising a photoa electric pulse transmitter, having a control beam which is directed at the article in the conveyor means adjacent the operative zone of said one gripping member.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said locking means comprises an electromagnet actuated by said impulse emitting means, said electromagnet including a bolt provided on its tractive armature and projecting under spring tension into the travelling path of the gripping members.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said endless travelling path is formed by a rail which, with respect to the travelling direction ahead of said locking means, comprises a substantially vertical rail section.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the gripping members which are released by the locking means and accelerated by gravity at the vertical section of said rail, are activated to provide a gripping function by their movement along a cam track.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, in which each of the gripping members comprises clamping tongs including clamping jaws, clamping springs coupled to one of said tongs and in the locked position of the clamping jaws extending at both sides of the ejection plane of said articles, said jaws being opened by said cam track.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7, in which said cam track terminates in wedge shaped formation adjacent the conveyor means for the articles whereby the clamping spring is released and the clamping jaws engage the article protruding into the open tongs.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8,, in which said cam track extends from the position of a locked gripper member in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of said members until the discharge station of the clamped articles on said travelling path, said apparatus comprising further conveying means for moving the gripping members upon said cam track and along an ascending section of the travelling path.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, in which the further conveying means extends to at least the beginning of a section of the rail path which slopes towards the locking means for the grippers, whereby the gripping members are movable under the action of gravity when they are released from the further conveying means to abut each other and bear on the gripping member retained by the locking means.

11. Apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said rail defines first and second conveyor channels, said gripping members travelling in one of the conveyor channels, a conveyor chain in the other conveyor channel for driving the gripper members the two channels being superposed and in communication with each other, the gripping members including coupling means which enter said other conveyor channel and resiliently abuts the conveyor chain in driving relation.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, in which each gripping member includes a gradually rising part rearwardly extending in the direction of travel, the latter part being adapted to engage the coupling means of a following abutting gripper to raise the coupling means out of engagement with the conveying chain against the action of a resilient force.

13. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said conveyor chain comprises rollers, the coupling means being resiliently urged against said rollers of the chain, said rollers rolling along the rail by the movement of the chain, whereby the gripping means is advanced by the rolling movement of the rollers, said coupling means including members having a length corresponding to a spacing of the rollers so as to advance the gripping members in the direction of travel from roller to roller.

14. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the endless travelling path is forked at least once prior to the discharge station of said articles.

15. Apparatus according to claim 14 comprising guide means extending along the rail sections following the location at which the path is forked, said guide means causing an opposite pivoting movement of the grippers transversely to the direction of travel and thus an angular movement relatively to each other of the articles carried along the forked rail lengths, for alternately discharging the articles in angularly displaced position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

